The Heart of an Assassin (17 page)

He saw the judge and those accompanying him
get into the police cruisers. Damn, if I had a high-powered rifle I
could have taken him out right now.

Pulling out from his spot, Nick managed to
position himself on the street adjacent to where the convoy would
pass. Watching them as they cruised by with sirens blaring, he
caught Tyler’s eye as he stared back. It was as if the world had
stopped revolving.

Up and Away

June 14, 1984

Among the armada of police cars and regular
traffic were six of the Giordanos’ cars following to see where the
judge was being taken. They communicated over their mobile phones
and half an hour later, arrived at the Framingham Police Station
where a helicopter was waiting. They could see the judge and four
other people get into it and take off.

Fabio ordered all cars to keep an eye on the
direction the helicopter was headed, and to try and follow them as
long as they could. Giordano immediately called a pilot they knew
at a nearby airport to see if there was a way to track the
helicopter. Within twenty minutes, they had an airplane headed in
the general direction the helicopter was last seen. Within minutes,
it was reported that the helicopter landed at the heliport in
mid-Manhattan. This was taken as good news by the Giordano family
since they had eyes and ears throughout the city of New York; cab
drivers, street vendors, and anyone who was interested in making a
fast buck.

O’Malley, accompanied by eight police
cruisers and five motorcycles, met the helicopter and escorted them
to the Twenty-First Precinct. “We got the call from Agent Connolly
that you guys needed some help,” O’Malley told Tyler. Both Eric and
Tyler were pleased to see their captain and their fellow
officers.

“Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun playing
babysitter for this character,” replied Tyler.

“Hey, it hasn’t been a picnic for me either,”
the judge remarked.

Sam, who had taken a bullet in the leg, was
left behind at a local hospital while Sheila, Eric, and Tyler went
on.

“How about we put him in protective custody
in a nearby hotel?” O’Malley suggested.

“For now, it’s our best shot,” Tyler
replied.

Upon arrival at the precinct, all of the
officers jumped out of their cruisers and engulfed the judge,
Tyler, and Sheila as they exited the car and entered the building.
What followed next was a quick exit through a tunnel connecting the
precinct to a small warehouse next door, a little known fact to the
neighborhood at large. They hurried the judge, Tyler, and Sheila to
an unmarked car that was waiting. Once inside, they all ducked down
in their seats as the driver pulled out into plain sight appearing
as a lone driver. Twenty minutes later, he pulled into the
underground parking lot of the Baltimore Boutique Hotel on 118th
Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Manhattan where two FBI agents
were waiting. After ensuring that the area was clear of any
outsiders, they quickly entered the nearby stairwell. Walking up
three flights of stairs, they managed to get to the rooms without
being spotted.

As a precaution, they commandeered three
rooms. The three rooms had connecting interior doors which remained
open at all times. Escape plans were in place in case their cover
was blown. The windows to all three rooms were covered with heavy
curtains, and three additional police officers were assigned the
task of keeping them safe while remaining as invisible as possible.
Out on the street were three unmarked vehicles. One on 118th
Street, across the way with a clear view to the front of the hotel,
and another was situated on 118th alongside the hotel. The last car
was on the boulevard facing the hotel from an angle. All three were
instructed to keep an eye out for any vendors, street peddlers, cab
drivers, and anyone else that was paying too much attention to any
of them or the hotel. The police knew exactly how much influence
and power the Giordano family had, and they weren’t taking any
chances. Though they felt somewhat secure at their present
locations, they had all agreed that they would once again be moved
at a more opportune time.

After hearing the direction the helicopter
took, Nick headed toward the Westerly State Airport in
Massachusetts, where he left his car and took an airplane to
Kennedy Airport in Queens. As Tyler, Sheila, Eric, and the judge
settled down for the night, Nick was arriving at Kennedy Airport,
where he rented a car as Joseph Drummer and headed for Manhattan.
Leaving the airport area, Nick pulled to the side of the road and
turned on the mobile phone.

“Hello. Is anyone there?” he spoke into the
phone.

“Is this Nick? Where are you?” Felicia
asked.

“Never mind that. Any word on where our
pigeon may be?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, they landed in Manhattan and went
directly to the Twenty-Sixth Precinct” was the response Nick
got.

“You know, this job has become too
complicated, too many people involved. So I have decided to
withdraw from our contract,” Nick said.

“You what?” Felicia screamed into the phone.
After hearing his sister scream, Fabio rushed into the room, yanked
his sister around, and put his finger over his lips.

A moment later, Fabio spoke into the phone.
“Okay, if that’s the way you feel. I understand,” responded
Fabio.

Nick was amused at how smart Fabio was. How
quickly he could analyze a situation and take the appropriate
action. Though Felicia was smart in her own right, Fabio was
proving to be a lot sharper. Nick knew that he would be the bigger
threat overtime than Felicia could have ever been.

Turning off the mobile phone, Nick proceeded
toward Manhattan. He knew his chances of catching up with the judge
were pretty slim. But his gut told him that they were holed up
somewhere in Manhattan and that he might get lucky.

Half an hour later, Fabio scheduled another
meeting for early in the morning. Additionally, he ordered that the
FBI surveillance van across the street from their estate be taken
out just before the meeting.

The Giordanos Meet

June 15, 1984

At 07:50 a.m., there was a hit-and-run as a
reckless driver accidentally rammed the FBI van and continued on
its way. The impact caused an unexplained fire, which somehow
started under the van. Though the occupants were able to exit the
van unharmed, all the electronic equipment inside had been severely
damaged by the fire that engulfed it.

At 07:55 a.m., Felicia smiled as she looked
out of her bedroom window at the smoke pouring out of a van across
the street. So sad, she thought to herself.

Downstairs in the conference room, Fabio sat
in front of his lieutenants as they settled down for the meeting.
Standing up, he looked around the room. They could see that he was
not happy. That he was disappointed with the results of their
efforts.“Does anyone have anything new to report?” he asked.

“We believe the judge is holed up somewhere
in Manhattan,” Leo Russo said.

“Yeah, we got word that they landed at the
Thirtieth Street heliport and then headed to the Twenty-Sixth
Precinct in upper Manhattan,” added Erin Romano.

“Fuck! Tell me something I don’t already
know. We have lost over thirteen men. Five are dead, and one is
wounded, and nothing to show for it,” Fabio added. “Our mobile
phones are useless because the cops got a hold of some of them. So
now we cannot communicate to our people.”

“Sir, why can’t we use them to mislead the
cops?” asked Adriana Romano.

Silence engulfed the room as everyone looked
at Adriana. All heads turned as Felicia entered the room in time to
hear Adriana’s suggestion. Not saying anything, she settled into a
corner chair to listen.

Fabio stared at Adriana, digesting what she
had just said. Smiling, he nodded as he walked over to her and
placed his hands on her shoulders. “Okay, okay. We will use the
phones to steer the cops the wrong way,” Fabio said. “I have called
in some additional hands from Chicago and San Francisco. They
should be arriving shortly. We need to concentrate all of our
resources on the whereabouts of the judge. If you hear anything, do
not use the mobile phones. Call us directly here. As of this
moment, all instructions received over the mobile phones are to be
construed as a sign to call in. Does everyone understand this?”
Fabio asked them.

“Yes, sir.” They all nodded their
overwhelming response.

“Okay, go and get them,” Fabio ordered.

As they all rose and began filtering out of
the room, Felicia stood up and asked Adriana to remain behind.
Fabio, Felicia, and Adriana took chairs next to each other at one
end of the table.

“Adriana, we want you to take a more active
role in the family,” Fabio said.

“Yes, we are quite happy with you,” added
Felicia.

“I . . . I don’t know what to say,” Adriana
responded.

“Commencing immediately, we want to bring you
into our personal confidence and promote you to the family
consigliore,” Fabio said.

“Oh my God,” Adriana blurted out.

“Yes,” responded Felicia.

“What do you say?” asked Fabio.

“I . . . I am honored,” Adriana said.

“Then your answer is yes?” asked Felicia.

“Oh yes. Yes, of course. My father would be
proud,” Adriana replied.

Both Felicia and Fabio smiled at her. After
making a toast, they decided to invite her to lunch while they
brought her up to date on what was happening in the business,
probing her for her opinion on different matters. Both Felicia and
Fabio were quite pleased with how much she had to offer, how much
she was attuned to their way of thinking. But they were a bit sad
that Adriana would need to be eliminated. After all, they could not
have a snitch working for them.

Adriana Romano

June 15, 1984

After losing two undercover officers to the
Giordano family, John Connolly decided that he would never make
that same mistake again; that he would never risk losing another
officer. After lengthy conversations with his people, John decided
to try and turn a member of the Giordano family instead.

It wasn’t long before they realized that one
of the prime candidates was Adriana Romano, daughter of Erin Romano
and one of the key lieutenants of the Giordano family. If they
could convince her that it would be in her family’s best interest
to become an informant for the FBI, they would make it worth her
while by not only entering her and her mother into the witness
protection program but would include her father as well.

Adriana knew that it was simply a matter of
time before the FBI caught up with them and that maybe she would be
able to save her father from being put in jail for the rest of his
life. Understanding the risk, she agreed to work with them as long
as she was not required to wear a wire. She would contact them when
the opportunity presented itself and only when she was 100 percent
certain that she was not at risk. Over the last two years, she had
become over confident and risked her position by taking unnecessary
chances. As a result, once when she had called FBI headquarters and
could not reach John Connolly she confided with an agent who,
unfortunately, was working for the Giordano family.

Three days before Adriana had her meeting
with Felicia and Fabio, John Connolly was visited by two of the
FBI’s Internal Affairs agents. John, knowing that there was a leak
in the department, ordered their phones tapped by IA. After
conferring with the two agents, John was saddened to learn that Ed
White had received a call from Adriana, which was never relayed to
him.

“Ed!” shouted John.

“Yes, John. What is it?” he asked.

“Did you receive a call recently from one of
our people out on the field by the name of Adriana Romano?” John
asked him.

“Me . . . No . . . Uh . . . I don’t remember
receiving one, John,” replied Ed. One of the IA agents placed a
tape recorder on the table and hit the play button. On it they
heard both Adriana and Ed identify themselves. Adriana advised Ed
to tell John that the Giordanos were mobilizing toward Ravena, New
York. This information hadn’t been relayed to John by Ed, but was
relayed to him by the other agents situated outside the Giordano
home.

Ed stared at the tape and then slumped down
on the chair closest to him. “They threatened my family. They said
they would kill my daughter and wife if I didn’t cooperate. I had
no choice, John! You got to believe me. I didn’t want to do it,” Ed
blurted out.

“You need to go with these agents,” John told
Ed. With that, the two agents escorted Ed out of the office, in
handcuffs. John immediately called out for all available agents to
come with him.

Meanwhile, Felicia and Fabio decided to
confront Erin Romano and put before him what they knew about his
daughter. They had already decided that Erin would probably have to
be eliminated as well, but wanted to give him a chance to redeem
himself. This, they felt, would be very interesting to watch.

Erin was met at the door by two soldiers who
escorted him into the conference room, where both Felicia and Fabio
were sitting with Adriana discussing their next moves in finding
the judge.

“What’s going on?” Erin asked.

“Dad, the Giordanos have promoted me to be a
consigliore,” Adriana told Erin.

“What?” asked Erin. Staring at Felicia and
Fabio, Erin was puzzled by this move since no outsider had ever
been moved to this position. He walked cautiously to the table and
sat down.“What’s going on? Fabio, Felicia, what’s going on?” he
asked again.

“It seems we have a problem,” responded
Felicia as she stood up and walked behind Adriana.

“What kind of problem,” asked Erin?